AuthorTopic: The Beach Boys (Read 70375 times)

It was very cool. I never saw them in person yet (except for Brian), so that was great. It was nice to see how they really "owned" the place. I never thought of Mike Love as a particularly good frontman, but he was more charismatic than I expected. Brian seemed tired and bored, but all the others seemed to have a blast. Only downside for me was the greatest hits setlist without any "rarities", I would have loved to hear a few tracks from 'Sunflower' (they did a few earlier on the tour).

- There will be two new hit compilations: the 20 song CD 'Greatest Hits' and it's 50 song two disc version '50 Big Ones'. Yeah, as if we needed any more hit compilations... If you need a Beach Boys hit compilation, just get 'Sounds of Summer', which is as complete as a one disc Beach Boys hit compilation will ever get.

- Remastered versions of the following twelve albums will be released on CD: Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Volume 2, All Summer Long, Today!, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), Party, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, Sunflower and Surf's Up. All albums will include mono as well as stereo mixes, except for Sunflower and Surf's Up, those will be stereo only as they were never released in mono. This will be the first time that Smiley Smile, Party, Today! and Summer Days this will be available in stereo.

- A career-spanning Beach Boys 50th Anniversary box set is planned for release later this year. No further details yet. Rumor is that the box set will be mostly or entirely made up of rare & unreleased material.

- Remastered versions of the following twelve albums will be released on CD: Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Volume 2, All Summer Long, Today!, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), Party, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, Sunflower and Surf's Up. All albums will include mono as well as stereo mixes, except for Sunflower and Surf's Up, those will be stereo only as they were never released in mono. This will be the first time that Smiley Smile, Party, Today! and Summer Days this will be available in stereo.

By the way, do you know if the songs "I Get Around" and "All Summer Long" will be available in stereo as well in the All Summer Long album?

By the way, do you know if the songs "I Get Around" and "All Summer Long" will be available in stereo as well in the All Summer Long album?

Apparently, yes. For years it's been said that it was impossible to make stereo mixes of some Beach Boys songs (including I Get Around and Good Vibrations) because the multi track master tapes are lost, but from what I've read they've used some new methods to split elements of these songs.

Apparently, yes. For years it's been said that it was impossible to make stereo mixes of some Beach Boys songs (including I Get Around and Good Vibrations) because the multi track master tapes are lost, but from what I've read they've used some new methods to split elements of these songs.

I see, it's like the case of the Beatles' "She Loves You". But from what you say it would be made by an artificial method and not from the original multitrack master.

Unfortionately some Beach Boys songs are impossible to be mixed in true stereo. Problem is that in the 60s, some people didn't realize yet how much historical value the recordings that they were making were going to have. The master tapes for the vocal sessions for Good Vibrations were thrown in the garbage in early 1967 during a clean-out of the archives of the Columbia Studios (only the master tapes of the instrumental sessions still excist). The original vocals on the master tape for I Get Around were wiped off when the band created a fake live version of the song for the 'Concert' album. The master tapes for at least one song (can't recall which one) simply went missing when Brian took them out of the archives when they were compiling 'Stack-O-Tracks'.

It was very cool. I never saw them in person yet (except for Brian), so that was great. It was nice to see how they really "owned" the place. I never thought of Mike Love as a particularly good frontman, but he was more charismatic than I expected. Brian seemed tired and bored, but all the others seemed to have a blast. Only downside for me was the greatest hits setlist without any "rarities", I would have loved to hear a few tracks from 'Sunflower' (they did a few earlier on the tour).

You finally got to see a Beach Boys concert, Joost. I'm happy for you. It was a long wait!

It was very cool. I never saw them in person yet (except for Brian), so that was great. It was nice to see how they really "owned" the place. I never thought of Mike Love as a particularly good frontman, but he was more charismatic than I expected. Brian seemed tired and bored, but all the others seemed to have a blast. Only downside for me was the greatest hits setlist without any "rarities", I would have loved to hear a few tracks from 'Sunflower' (they did a few earlier on the tour).

What was the best moment? What was the worst moment? Was it well presented? Did they do an encore?

I'm so jealous Joost because I'm not going to get to see them. And so I probably never will...

What was the best moment? What was the worst moment? Was it well presented? Did they do an encore?

I'm so jealous Joost because I'm not going to get to see them. And so I probably never will...

Best: God Only Knows. Listening to my all-time favorite song, performed live by my favorite band, while I had my arms around my girlfriend... Not just the best moment of the concert but one of the best moments ever.

Worst: I thought it was just painful to look at Brian. I felt sorry for him because it was clear that he wasn't having a good time.

Presentation: Not spectaculair (no stage decorations or anything), but especially Mike and Al look so comfortable on stage, they could probably play a Beach Boys show in their sleep. You could tell that these guys did this literally thousands of times before, they know what they're doing. Impressive.

Best: God Only Knows. Listening to my all-time favorite song, performed live by my favorite band, while I had my arms around my girlfriend... Not just the best moment of the concert but one of the best moments ever.

Worst: I thought it was just painful to look at Brian. I felt sorry for him because it was clear that he wasn't having a good time.

Presentation: Not spectaculair (no stage decorations or anything), but especially Mike and Al look so comfortable on stage, they could probably play a Beach Boys show in their sleep. You could tell that these guys did this literally thousands of times before, they know what they're doing. Impressive.

Encore: Kokomo, Barbara Ann and Fun, Fun, Fun.

Thanks Joost. I imagine I'd have similar reactions. I'm still pretty jealous!

Sad to hear that it seems like Brian is bored and detached from the whole reunion tour. I think his interest in being a Beach Boy pretty much faded sometime in the late '60s/early '70s or so. I get the fuzzy sensation in the back of my mind that he'll leave them. But hey, at least they're out there, giving the public one last hurrah. I'd like to see them just once live before the next one dies. This is the remnant of my favorite band.

Sad to hear that it seems like Brian is bored and detached from the whole reunion tour. I think his interest in being a Beach Boy pretty much faded sometime in the late '60s/early '70s or so. I get the fuzzy sensation in the back of my mind that he'll leave them. But hey, at least they're out there, giving the public one last hurrah. I'd like to see them just once live before the next one dies. This is the remnant of my favorite band.

I do think that Brian enjoys being with the guys again, he's just never been comfortable with being on stage. I thought he did alright the four times I saw him as a solo artist, but now that he's not the sole centre of attention but just a member of the band, he just seems to allow himself to doze off a little bit every now and then.

If you keep all the greedy personal managers and lawyers away, I think that Brian, Mike, Al and David are still the same old guys that grew up together more than half a century ago. The way Brian reacted to Al coming over to his side of the stage during 'Kokomo' and the way he took Mike's hand after the encore said enough for me. These guys like being around each other.

I do think that Brian enjoys being with the guys again, he's just never been comfortable with being on stage. I thought he did alright the four times I saw him as a solo artist, but now that he's not the sole centre of attention but just a member of the band, he just seems to allow himself to doze off a little bit every now and then.

If you keep all the greedy personal managers and lawyers away, I think that Brian, Mike, Al and David are still the same old guys that grew up together more than half a century ago. The way Brian reacted to Al coming over to his side of the stage during 'Kokomo' and the way he took Mike's hand after the encore said enough for me. These guys like being around each other.

You're right, Brian probably does find some good feeling being with the guys again. But...

1. Brian has, indeed, never felt comfortable on the stage, though has made good progress in the last few years on his own. Going out there now, it feels different because he's not at the center of it, really. It's natural he'd act differently.

2. No matter how much he loves those guys, there still are undoubtedly bad memories that may come up being with Mike, Al, etc.

3. Most of all, I'm thinking a lot of the reason Brian may be more reserved on the reunion tour is that he must miss Carl and Dennis, true original Beach Boys and his brothers, greatly. That most leave a pall over the whole proceedings. It of course can't help but come to the minds of fans, too.

- A career-spanning Beach Boys 50th Anniversary box set is planned for release later this year. No further details yet. Rumor is that the box set will be mostly or entirely made up of rare & unreleased material.

The title will be 'Made in California' and it will be a 6 CD set. Price will likely be comparable to the price of the Smile Sessions box set.

2. No matter how much he loves those guys, there still are undoubtedly bad memories that may come up being with Mike, Al, etc.

Probably, but if you're family and you literally grew up together, or if you've been friends for over half a century, I think you can get over the bad memories. They've been on such a long, amazing and often beautiful trip together. And for as far as I know, Brian never really had any problems with Al, David and Bruce. Plus, he's got 3/4 of his own backing band with him on stage and his wife is always at the side of the stage with him.

3. Most of all, I'm thinking a lot of the reason Brian may be more reserved on the reunion tour is that he must miss Carl and Dennis, true original Beach Boys and his brothers, greatly. That most leave a pall over the whole proceedings. It of course can't help but come to the minds of fans, too.

Could be, but they've been gone for 29 and 14 years, respectively. And I think that as adults they were never really that close to begin with. Brian was usually at home or in the studio, Carl was on tour half of the time and Dennis was either on tour or doing whatever he did. So it would surprise me if that's still much of an issue for Brian. But then again, who knows.

It's currently all over the news that Brian, Al and David were fired from The Beach Boys by Mike. That's entirely untrue.

Thing is: The Beach Boys as a company (a.k.a. BRI, Brother Records Industries) and The Beach Boys as a live band (a.k.a. The Mike & Bruce Band) are two seperate things.

BRI has four shareholders: Brian, Mike, Al and Carl's estate (Dennis's estate sold his share to the other four, Bruce and David were never shareholders). Those four parties legally make up The Beach Boys and get to decide what's done with the band's legacy. Obviously no BRI shareholder can possibly fire another BRI shareholder.

The live band is a different thing. Many years ago, BRI sold the exclusive license to perform live as The Beach Boys to Mike. So he can go on stage with whoever he wants and call it The Beach Boys, and ever since 1998 he's chosen to tour with just Bruce and a bunch of hired hands. It's been that way for 14 years. Ever since this 50th anniversary thing was announced, the plan was that the five remaining Beach Boys would do one more tour together, and after that the old Mike & Bruce Band would go back to business as usual. Thing is, apparently Brian and Al have changed their minds and want to keep touring with Mike, Bruce and David. And so far it seems that Mike's not too crazy about the idea.

It was supposed to come out in November but I believe it's now delayed until January 2013. For as far as I know no song titles have been mentioned yet, but I would be surprised if Wouldn't It Be Nice To Live Again wouldn't be on it.